/*
 * #!
 * Ontopia Engine
 * #-
 * Copyright (C) 2001 - 2013 The Ontopia Project
 * #-
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 * 
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 * 
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 * !#
 */

package net.ontopia.infoset.fulltext.core;

import java.io.IOException;
import net.ontopia.topicmaps.core.index.IndexIF;

/**
 * INTERNAL: Represents a search engine. Instances of this class are
 * able to perform searches across a collection of documents.<p>
 */

public interface SearcherIF extends IndexIF {
  
  /**
   * INTERNAL: Performs a query on an index. The actual query syntax is
   * search engine dependent.
   */
  SearchResultIF search(String query) throws IOException;
  
  /**
   * INTERNAL: Releases resources associated with this searcher.
   */
  void close() throws IOException;

}
